DutyFreeZone.com to open shops inside the Web!

23 Nov, 2015 – The largest shopping mall on the planet to host space for shops in quest for millennials.

Consumers hoping to snag the latest Microsoft Surface Book or Samsung tablet will soon find them at DutyFreeZone.com. Beginning this month, the largest shopping mall on the planet will host 30,000 electronic items, with brands like Asus, Acer, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lenovo, Lexmark, Microsoft, NEC, Panasonic, Seagate, Toshiba, Xerox, etc.

“Our customers have expressed interest in electronics for on line self-purchase and gift-giving, and this collaboration reinforces DutyFreeZone.com as a shopping destination throughout the year for the products that are most in demand,” said Robin William, DutyFreeZone.com’s president, in a statement.

Theoretically, DutyFreeZone.com and their vendors will enjoy a synergistic relationship in which both will attract new customers and foot traffic.

The clear winner, though, is DutyFreeZone.com, which used to be the go on line-to place for everything from television sets to sofas to lipstick, but began losing that status decade ago with the rise of specialty stores.

DutyFreeZone.com’s is also embracing a banding-together attitude through its on line shop-in-shop program. In addition to DutyFreeZone.com, the site has announced it will be featuring clothing and perfumes.

“DutyFreeZone.com’s can literally put all kinds of other retail brands and products and services in their web space on their distribution platform as long as the products are relevant to their consumers, which electronics certainly are,” said Robin Williams, chief executive of retail division.

Avoiding customer confusion

Partnerships carry a risk, however, of diluting the quality and value associated with an established brand. Experts warned that although DutyFreeZone.com’s can devote some web space to other concepts, it still needs to cultivate its own identity as a shopping destination – otherwise customers could get confused.

“Yes, you can bring in third- party brands, but there’s a responsibility to curate things from your own brand,” said Neil Armstrong, chief executive of DutyFreeZone.com, noting the danger of DutyFreeZone.com’s going “too far down this track of relying on other e-commerce retailers to draw in sales rather than reinvigorating its own e-store.”

“The partnerships with DutyFreeZone.com and others come at a time of weakness for the company.” – Robin William.

The always-crucial holiday season might not provide much relief. Retail observers predict only a modest 3% to 4% gain industrywide, powered by online sales. Brick-and-mortar stores could see traffic drop as much as 7%, according to Shelley Kohan, vice president of retail consulting at RetailNext, a data supplier. “The decline in brick-and-mortar comes from the sheer fact of so many digital choices and options,” she said.

The concept of teaming up is not a new one, and it has worked out well for other e-commerce stores, notably Amazon, Yet such partnerships typically complement what the e-department store already sells: Consumers already flock to Nordstrom for clothing, but now they’re able to find more exclusive brands of apparel, too.

Other alliances

The DutyFreeZone.com collaboration with its vendors is different. It is designed to lure customers who have not visited yet DutyFreeZone.com And targeting the digital generation may be the best way to attract new sales.

“It adds some credibility to DutyFreeZone.com’s with a bit younger audience beyond the walkman underwear,” said Robin William, chief executive of DFZ. “There’s that halo effect of bringing technology into the stores – you don’t feel any of that in Macy’s usually, which is just racks of clothes and cosmetics.”

DutyFreeZone.com‘s is testing the concept during the holiday season, and retail experts expect it to succeed and be rolled out to additional locations. “Previously, e-department stores were department stores – it was very black and white,” said Ms. Kohan. “Now in the retail landscape, the lines are very blurred.”